Media centre

Thursday 18 Aug 2005

ALL CHANGE AT PARKSBRIDGE JUNCTION

Region & Route:

| Southern

Network Rail engineers were hard at work over the weekend in South London undertaking a major points replacement at Parksbridge Junction in Lewisham.  This junction is one of the busiest on the Kent route, used by hundreds of trains every day.  The points are now over 30 years old and their age was starting to affect the reliability of the route for passengers.  Commenting on the work Network Rail Route Director Dave Ward said:  “Parksbridge Junction is situated on a busy part of the main line into London and a points failure here can have a major effect on the rest of the Kent network.  This work is part of our ongoing commitment to do everything we can to improve performance, once completed the new junction will help provide a more reliable service for passengers.  The work also represented a significant achievement by our engineers as they managed to replace 5 points motors weighing a quarter of a tonne each in a single 12 hour shift.” The work at the weekend was part of an ongoing project to replace the entire junction at Parksbridge which was last renewed in the 1970’s.  The work is due to be completed in November when the remaining 7 sets of points motors are replaced.